The present invention relates to a method and a device for creating an image database for an image evaluation procedure, preferably within an agricultural context.
Out of the extensive prior art, reference is made here, as an example, to U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,442, in which an agricultural working machine designed as a combine harvester is disclosed; a large number of camera systems used to detect the stream of material passing through the particular working units is assigned to the agricultural working machine, in the region of its working units. A data processing unit which may be used to evaluate the images generated by the various camera systems is also assigned to the agricultural working machine. The data processing unit is designed to generate control signals for the particular working units based on the evaluation of the image information. U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,442 therefore discloses a control/regulating system which optimizes the operating parameters of the working units in a camera-based manner and in real-time operation.
Since enormous quantities of data typically must be analyzed when evaluating image data, systems of this type are limited to simple analyses due to the limited memory capacities and data transmission rates available on the agricultural working machine. This has the disadvantage, in particular, that the complex interrelationships that exist between the working units of the agricultural working machine are not adequately depicted, or that they are depicted with a time delay that is so great that control of the working units is limited.
Due to the large quantities of data to be processed, the image data generated by camera systems are typically not stored, since they are only needed to analyze an instantaneous operating point and to derive optimized operating parameters for the working units. Images generated in this manner contain only a limited amount of information for subsequent analyses, since they depict the flow of crop material in a more or less precise manner, and they do not include any information about the operating states of the working units or about unapparent properties such as the moisture content of the crop material.